MPH, Neuropsych, and MD - help

[lahvisx]

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i am not sure if this is the best place to put this thread. so if this is not the right place for this, please let me know.

i am interested in either med school or a ph.d in clinical psych for neuropsych. now, i feel that i need more research experience, more experience with other professionals for better letters of rec and networking, and i am interested in public health. i feel the population perspective would give me a holistic view for the care that i would give no matter what i end up pursuing. for i figured an mph degree would be a good degree to have, especially for the research. however, i am not sure what mph track i should enter that would be applicable for both med school and neuropsych. if anyone could give me some advice, i would really appreciate it. thanks.

and please, only helpful advice. thanks, i really appreciate it. 🙂

 

[splik]

epidemiology

 

[364462]

i am not sure if this is the best place to put this thread. so if this is not the right place for this, please let me know.

i am interested in either med school or a ph.d in clinical psych for neuropsych. now, i feel that i need more research experience, more experience with other professionals for better letters of rec and networking, and i am interested in public health. i feel the population perspective would give me a holistic view for the care that i would give no matter what i end up pursuing. for i figured an mph degree would be a good degree to have, especially for the research. however, i am not sure what mph track i should enter that would be applicable for both med school and neuropsych. if anyone could give me some advice, i would really appreciate it. thanks.

and please, only helpful advice. thanks, i really appreciate it. 🙂

I think you can make a case for any track as a trajectory to either med school or the PhD. I mean, all the MPH tracks/concentrations require critical, analytical, practical, and theoretical skills. To be sure, Epi and Bio will tend to have more quantitative courses/requirements, but this does not necessarily translate to "better" fit for either med school or the PhD. As a medical doctor, you may be interested in the social and behavioral determinants of communicable diseases, for example. I can see how a social/beh track for the MPH would be a good fit. Or as neuropsych clinician, you may be interested in how health policies affect healthcare access and equity for patients with TBI in war-torn developing nations. So, I can see how a health policy focus, supplemental to a global health concentration, for the MPH would make sense here. And on and on. 😀 I think a lot will ride on how you envision your professional career, your longer-term goals.

I have a doctorate in psychology, and I am interested in global mental health. Mental health is rarely included in public health curriculum. Though social and behavioral determinants of public health are looked into - indeed, there are entire departments devoted to the discipline - I personally believe that there is insufficient training in mental health/mental illness within the public health field. Courses on non-communicable diseases some times fail to be inclusive of mental disorders or give mental illness a cursory treatment rather than an in-depth examination.

I point this out in case you do give more consideration into being a neuropsych clinician. Global mental health is not a new discipline, but it is only more recently that it is becoming a "movement." There are very real psychological/psychosocial stressors that affect those areas traditionally addressed by public health - HIV/AIDS, TB, malaria, reproductive health, nutrition, etc. As a neuropsych clinician, you will be in a strong position to make headway for the discipline within public health. There are many MDs in public health, and indeed they contribute a great deal to the field. However, how many psychologists do you know work in public health, say, in a developing nation? Not many, and I think that's reason enough to go for it. 😀

Good luck!